Local Artist Brightens Up City With Giant Racetrack Murals

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — One local artist has been brightening up the city with giant murals of racetracks painted on the sides of buildings, fences and other unusual places.

Mitchell Schorr transformed the side of an old strip club along the West Side Highway and many other locations with murals featuring rainbow race cars speeding past ice cream trucks and other vehicles.

“I wanted to do something I could continue through the city and every time you saw it, it would be the same but something different,” Schorr told WCBS 880’s Alex Silverman.

Local Artists Brightens Up City With Giant Murals

The artist said the project started with his memories of growing up.

Mitchell Schorr Mural On West Side Highway Building (credit: Alex Silverman/WCBS 880)

“The subways were covered in art,” Schorr recalled. “When I returned from college it was under the Giuliani era; the art basically disappeared.”

“I wanted to bring back artwork to the city,” he added.

In the past two years, Schorr has painted about 30 raceways in three boroughs.

“Some people have called me and said, ‘Hey, I’ve got this great building, you want to come paint it?'” Schorr said.

His largest project on a construction fence on FDR Drive took 15 hours to complete.